There and Back Again

Movie Review: The House (2017)

Summary: After the town takes away their daughter’s college scholarship, a couple starts an illegal casino in their friend’s house to make back the money.

Pros:

The Cast. Another case where the characters are lacking but the cast is good. There is a ton of funny people in this movie, a lot of people from Saturday Night Live and what not, but they are really just themselves on the movie set going back and forth and jokes and fun stuff. They’re all good.

The Humor. I think this movie is funny. I normally find Ferrell and Poehler funny, so I liked them together, they bounced off each other really well. They both have great comedic timing and it’s funnier when they’re just regular suburban parents who lose their minds.

Entertaining. It’s a fun movie! I think at best, watching Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler be ridiculous, watch how they get in over their heads and take on these crazy personas is really fun to watch. Plus, the whole fallout towards the end is so over the top its hilariously ridiculous.

Cons:

The Humor. As I always say, humor is subjective and I know everyone won’t find this movie funny. There are times when it’s not funny, it’s just trying to hard. Sometimes you can tell when someone ad-libbed and sometimes those moments are the ones that don’t flow with the dialogue, it feels out-of-place and is not funny. It comes off cheap and gross sometimes. They linger on certain laughs for too long and the funny dies with the joke.

The Usual. There’s nothing really different or special about this movie that makes it stand out. It wants to be something new with the whole idea of parents doing whatever it takes to help their daughter go to college, so they make a homemade casino, which the idea is new but the execution isn’t. Since it’s a comedy, it’s limited (could have been a dark comedy) and it shows. The serious stuff they do for laughs, and outside of watching the spectacle, it’s just so overdone.

Pacing Issues. It’s only when the movie is moving on its toes that it’s fun. When it slows down, the whole movie grinds to a stop to handle those moments because the rest is so upbeat and moving and it’s very noticeable. When it’s slow, it’s really slow and the beginning is filled with those really slow moments.

Overall, I had a good time watching The House. It’s not a good movie, but the acting is good, I mean Ferrell and Poehler carry this movie. The humor lands most of the time and its entertaining when it’s doing it’s thing and just having a good time itself. Otherwise, it has pacing issues, which makes it slow down super slow and it gets really boring and all you want is for it to get back to the casino. It’s nothing new, nothing special and I do think that it hurts it because we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen Ferrell do his “man-baby” schtick, we’ve seen Poehler start off as chill but get crazy throughout, we’ve seen that. We’ve seen gross humor where people are getting limbs accidentally cut off, or suburban people fighting… it’s not fresh and after a while, it starts to lose its shock factor and is no longer funny. Humor is subjective and not all of the jokes land. If you’re looking for a good time and you like Saturday Night Live, you’ll most likely like this movie and there’s nothing wrong with that. Enjoy it.

Rating: 2.39 out of 5 stars.

Have you seen The House? What did you think about it? Did you find it funny?

Which comedy movie would you rather watch: The House or Sisters?

Let me know your picks!

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